Wow! It’s amazing how much I look like a spirit of the woods in this eerie photo, digitally manipulated to enhance the effect. In fact, I was on a hike with an English Conversation 英会話 student from the Smith’s School of English in Kotoen スミス英会話 甲東園 and another good friend, three guys out for a serious bout of exercise and fresh air.
The hike was one of many in the back woods of Arashiyama, a place easily reached by Hankyu on the Arashiyama Line out of Katsura. There are a great many reasonably well-marked hikes in the area for all skill levels, but my buddy who lives in the area knows the obscure, far less well-traveled paths that get really interesting.
The best thing to do is get a good hiking primer for the area because it sure can get confusing. It’s unlikely that you would ever get really lost, but knowing for sure which path you’re on helps to get you on to the sights you’re hoping to see and back to civilization before dark.
Next time out we’re heading up the back way of another apparently forgotten path. This one allegedly gets us up through a quasi-secret ridge that was used as a trading route in Meiji times and probably before. Near the top we’re expecting to find a waterfall, but at this point we’re aren’t sure how much exertion will be required to get there. It’s classed as an intermediate hike, a designation we have sometimes found to be a bit misleading, at least as far as the English translation goes. Oh well! Exercise and fresh air! It’s a great opportunity for students to use English 英会話 while visiting their own country. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. And it’s great fun, too.
Martin Werner Zander
マーティン・ワーナー・ザンダー
Smith’s School in Kotoen 月謝制 Real Monthly Tuition English Conversation School
Where’d you go, Martin? I don’t recognize that footbridge. My Dad here this week; I’m planning to take him up the Kiyotaki, perhaps up and down back of Atago-san….